Italy’s top men’s football league players and coaches have painted red marks across their faces as part of a campaign to end violence against women, with the initiative’s slogan translating to “a red card against violence”.
The movement is also aimed at creating awareness for an anti-violence/stalking phone hotline in Italy.
Coinciding with International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (November 25th), the men’s soccer players’ act of solidarity comes as national outrage spread across Italy over the nation’s egregious femicide rate.
Tens of thousands of people took to Italy’s streets on Saturday to protest the epidemic of male violence and grieve the recent killing of a young woman in Italy, allegedly by her former Italian boyfriend.
Giulia Cecchettin, 22, was just days away from graduating university when she was found deceased, with multiple stab wounds.
Among the thousands of Italian women demanding elimination of gender-based violence, Giulia’s sister, Elena, has issued a powerful plea: “For Giulia, don’t hold a minute of silence. For Giulia, burn it all down.”
In Italy, one woman is killed on average every three days. This year alone, there’s been 106 femicides in the country, according to the Italian Interior Ministry. And intimate partner violence is rampant as fifty-five of these women are allegedly killed by a partner or ex-partner.
As women and men across the country continue to protest, members of the Serie A league will mark their faces in red for matches on Sunday and Monday as well.
“There is no place for violence against women anywhere, any time, any place,” writes the Lega Serie A on platform X (formerly Twitter) as male soccer players join women against gender-based violence.
With these high-profile men taking a stand, the heartwrenching words of Giulia’s sister Elena ring louder than ever.
“It is often said ‘not all men’. But they are always men,” she said.
“It is the responsibility of men in this patriarchal society to call out friends and colleagues.”
“Say something to that friend who controls his girlfriend, say something to that colleague who catcalls passers-by. These behaviours are accepted by society, and can be the prelude to femicide.”